Money can't buy you love or the GOP

I was not a Romney fan nor did I believe he had a snowball’s chance in hell of ever wining a Presidential race for the GOP against any Democratic contender – even if the Democrats nominated Al Sharpton to lead them.

So I cannot say I am not glad to see him go. There were just so many things about Romney which rubbed me the wrong way. The constant need to re-invent or reposition himself (and usually via power point presentations) during the primary season was the final straw for me. I started to think of him as the GOP Extreme Make-over candidate, and if I am going to get confessional; there is still enough of the inner prole in me to find the frequent reference to using his personal fortune to finance his run more than a tad condescending.

I started to blog about the GOP last fall after watching the media (conservative, liberal, US and Canadian) got it so wrong about Huckabee. I admit to enjoying watching the Huckabee bring out the mud-slinger in Mr. Squeaky Clean candidate. No doubt it kept strategists at the Romney campaign headquarters awake for nights at time thinking how best to quip Huckabee’s characterization of Romney being the guy who reminds you of the guy who laid you off.

All of which brings me to Romney’s announcement yesterday at CPAC, in which he is suspending his campaign to be the GOP nominee and conceding the race to John McCain. Romney is many things but fiscally stupid is not one of them. He ran the numbers after Super Tuesday, and then he checked the finances. And there was probably a bit more than a simple ouch factor when he compared Huckabee’s numbers and spending and he realized Huckabee was right. It was a two man race, and it did not matter how much money Romney spent; neither of the two men were going to be him.

So I am not surprised that Romney chose to suspend his campaign rather than withdraw his candidacy as it leaves his delegates in a kind of electoral suspension so they are not free to attach or disperse themselves to any other candidates. And if I were take a stab at who Romney was hoping to thwart by doing it this way; I probably suggest it was Huckabee. It also makes his “classy” resignation speech a tad suspect for me. I’d characterize as getting one last opportunity for firing off a shot to head from under the wire at Huckabee speech.

If there is one positive to come out of a Romney campaign it is this: the GOP nomination cannot be bought.